Refugees Teargassed

The situation in Idomi is becoming increasingly untenable. “The Macedonian police used tear gas and rubber bullets on Sunday to disperse hundreds of migrants who tried to break through a border fence in a large refugee camp in the northern Greek town of Idomeni, the latest in a series of increasingly frequent uprisings by migrants stuck in Greece after countries sealed the main route they had been using to get to Germany. Greek television showed migrants running from clouds of tear gas and falling to the ground as the wind blew toxic fumes into the encampment, where more than 12,000 people, mostly women and children, have been stuck for more than a month amid hopes that the border would reopen.” (NYT http://nyti.ms/1Q262X3)

Hundreds dead in fireworks accident…“The Hindu temple in southern India was packed with thousands for a religious festival early Sunday when the fireworks began – an unauthorized pyrotechnic display that went horribly wrong. Explosions and a massive fire swept rapidly through the Puttingal temple complex about 3 a.m. in the village of Paravoor, killing 102 people and injuring 380 others, officials said…The fire started when a spark from the fireworks show ignited a separate batch of fireworks that were being stored in the temple complex, said Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, the top elected official in Kerala state. Most of the 102 deaths occurred when the building where the fireworks were stored collapsed, Chandy told reporters. About 60 bodies have been identified so far, he added.” (CBS http://cbsn.ws/1Q25VLl )

Quote of the day: “If you are asking whether the secretary of state came to Hiroshima to apologise, the answer is no,” a senior U.S. official, to reporters as John Kerry visited the site of the first use of an Atomic bomb. (Reuters http://reut.rs/1Q26e8G)

Africa

Sierra Leone called Sunday for increased vigilance to prevent a resurgence of the Ebola virus after new cases in neighbouring Liberia and Guinea, but cautioned against shutting off borders between the west African states. (AFP http://bit.ly/1Q26vsl)

Angolan police briefly detained dozens of protesters in the capital Luanda after they tried to march in support of a group of activists jailed for planning a rebellion, witnesses said late on Saturday. (Reuters http://bit.ly/1XpykAA)

The African Union said Sunday that Djibouti’s presidential election, won by a landslide by incumbent Ismail Omar Guelleh, was “free and credible,” despite opposition protests over the outcome. (AFP http://bit.ly/1qCd0xj)

Nigerian secret police have accused a Biafra separatist group of killing 55 people after discovering their bodies in shallow graves in a thick forest in the country’s southeast. (AFP http://bit.ly/1qCduUb)

More than a quarter of a million people in Burundi have fled in terror as opposition militias plot their return. Without international assistance a humanitarian disaster looms. (The Observerhttp://bit.ly/1N2QAzp)

Chad voted in a presidential election on Sunday at which incumbent Idriss Deby is running for a fifth term in office arguing that only his government can maintain stability in the face of a threat from Islamist militants. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1Xpyisx)

MENA

Fighting has broken out north of Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, and in the centre of the country, killing more than 20 people, hours before a truce was due to come into force to facilitate peace talks. (Al Jazeera http://bit.ly/1qCdxzy)

The ceasefire in Syria “is about to collapse,” an official from the opposition said in an interview published Sunday, just days before the resumption of peace talks in Geneva. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1XpyfNl)

Syria airdrop works...A total of 20 metric tons of urgently needed food supplies – mainly beans, chickpeas and rice, and enough to feed 2,500 people for one month – were dropped from high altitude by a WFP-chartered aircraft on Deir Ezzor. (WFP http://bit.ly/1qCcUGd)

A Syrian journalist who opposed Islamic State group jihadists was in intensive care Sunday after being shot in the head by a masked gunman in southern Turkey, reports and activists said. (AFP http://bit.ly/1Q26sN7 )

Asia

Protesters opposing the construction of a Chinese-backed, coal-fired power plant in Bangladesh agreed on Sunday to halt their activities for 15 days, defusing tensions after four demonstrators were killed last week. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1SIfPDM)

A powerful earthquake rattled Pakistan’s capital and other cities on Sunday, killing one person in the northwest and wounding 30 others, officials said. (SF Chronicle http://bit.ly/1Q26kx8)

Voters were heading to the polls in the Indian Ocean archipelago of the Comoros on Sunday in a likely face-off between the current vice president and a former coup leader who ruled the country for seven years. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1XpyhVs)

The Americas

The law firm at the center of the Panama offshore accounts scandal routinely usurped the name of the Red Cross and other charities to help obscure the origin of millions of dollars in questionable funds, two newspapers involved in the investigation reported Sunday. (AP http://yhoo.it/1RZBUhj)

Peruvians voted Sunday on whether Keiko Fujimori, daughter of an ex-president jailed for massacres, should become their first female leader in an election marred by alleged vote-buying and deadly attacks. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1RZBV4N)

Many nations are pushing for swift ratification of a Paris agreement to slow climate change and lock it in place for four years before a change in the White House next year that might bring a weakening of Washington’s long-term commitment. (AP http://yhoo.it/1SIfKzU)

…and the rest

EU ministers visited Turkey on Sunday, urging the country to carefully implement a deal on returning migrants and warning they would be keeping a close eye out for potential abuses. (AFP http://yhoo.it/25Tl39s)

For the first time in the United Nations’ 70-year history, candidates vying to become secretary-general will make their pitch for the job to world governments in hearings beginning next week. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1Xpyhot)

British Prime Minister David Cameron took the unusual step on Sunday of publishing his tax records to try to end days of questions about his personal wealth raised by the mention of his late father’s offshore fund in the Panama Papers. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1SIfMrz)